IF any man be inquisitiue of the office and reward of Vertue and honest conuersation , he must knowne that there belongeth two properties to it . First , to inryche man with the transitorie riches of thys worlde , and after death to reward him with euerlasting saluation which neuer shall haue ende . Virgilius . Whervpon Virgill wryteth well , saying : there are but few whome vpright Iupiter with a feruent zeale fauoured , or whom Vertue extolleth to the highe heauens , or else according to Lactantius in his sixt booke : Lactan. lib. 6. It is the propertie of Vertue to refraine anger , to asswage gredy appetites , and to brydle carnall desires . Secondly , Vertue maketh hir scholer and Client , the true rychest man aboue all other , in so muche that he shall want nothing , but shall haue aboundance of euery thing . As Plato in Amph. writeth thus , Plato in Amph. that Vertue leadeth the waye , and sheweth the pathe to all things perfectly . And libertie , health , life , substance , parents , & kinsfolkes defende and garde hir .

Vertue possesseth all things within hir selfe , the vertuous man lacketh nothing , but he hath all things at will , who ruleth by Vertue .

For vertue is not desirous of common prayse , neyther of that which euery man alloweth , neither requireth she honor , or glorye , Sillius . as the Poet Silius sayth . Ipsa quidem virtus sibimet pulcherrima merces . Vertue is a beautifull rewarde to it selfe . Claudius . Vnto whome the Poet Claudius agreeth in these verses .

AND when as thus thou hast made sharpe & whetted thy wit , them hast thou nede of science or instruction , for neyther doeth nature nor witte suffise onely , vnlesse they be associate with instruction . bycause that it maketh that perfect , which else by nature is vnperfect . Cicero nouae rhetor . lib. 3. Therefore Cicero in his thirde booke intituled nou● Rethorica , sayth : that science doth confirme , stablishe and augment the commodities of nature , and in the fourth boke of the same Rethoricke Cicero sayth . Ibid. lib. 4 Vt equus indomitus , quamuis bene natura compositus sit , idoneus non potest esse ad eas vtilitates et artes , quae desiderantur ab equo , ita neque homo indoctus , quamuis ingeniosus , ad virtutem potest peruenire , quoniam non potest virtus sine doctrina comparari . Euen as an vntamed horse , although his proporcion be neuer so well shapen and compact by the art nature , can not be made fitte and apt for the commodities and feates which are desired in a horse : no more can an vnlerned man , be he neuer so wittie , ascende vnto Vertue , bycause that vertue can not be adopted or obtayned without learning . Vpon this , the learned Gentiles erected common scholes , first at Athens a Citie of the Grecians most excellent & famous , and at that tyme in many other places , that in them , youth might be educated and instructed in knoweledge , and in comelye , decent and honest maners , which two are but sickerly gotten without instruction . Therefore Aristippus the Philosopher did compare the vnlearned , rude , & vntaught , to a hard stone , of whom a certaine olde father inquired at a certaine tyme , what profite or commoditie he shoulde doe to his sonne , if he shoulde bring him vp in learning , he answered . Si nihil aliud , saltem in theatro non sedebit lapis super lapidem , non erit apud doctos tanquam lapis . If it profiteth him nothing , yet at least when he sitteth beholding any theatre and worthy thing one stone sitteth not on an other , neyther shall he be as a stone dumbe without speache , when as he commeth in the company of the learned . The Ethnickes did knowe that Vertue was to be gotten by instruction . In consideration wherof , they kepte scholemasters or instructers at home , vnder whose rule and gouernement their chyldren learned Artes and Vertues . And that was so religious amongst the Athenians , that they ordeyned a law , that their children should not be constrayned nor coerced to nourishe their aged fathers , vnles their fathers in their youth had committed them to maysters to be instructed and brought vp in the knowledge of Vertue . And instruction to attayne Vertue by , is two fold : the one is mute and dombe , the other quicke & liuelye . The mute and dombe is , to be learned by the bookes and monumentes of the learned wryters , by the reading of which , we are taught without any worde speaking . The other quicke and liuely instruction , is to be lerned at the scholemasters , who from their liuely mouth , doe sende and infunde into the eares of yong men , the precepts of Vertue . Notwithstanding , the liuely instruction excelleth the mute . For we reade that therfore many Philosophers trauailed many countreys , neyther left they any vnseene , as Pyhatgoras , Empedocles , Democritus , and Plato occupied & vsed nauigation very oft , to obtaine therby that moste amiable Ladye Vertue , and with their perigrinations and long iourneys , they sought hir out curiously : for they could not be contented nor satisfyed with the shadowed , & candle dropped study , which they might haue had betwixte two walles , but conferred themselues thether where any worthy thing was to bee learned , not bookes , but perfite and skilfull Philosophers or instructours . There are foure kinde of bookes of Authours princicipally to be reade , which be the workes of Poets wryting honestly , the painefull labours of Historiographers , the wyse , discrete and sage sayings of Philosophers , and the deuine sense of sacred scripture . Honest Poetes doe so much conduct and lead to an honest life , that the most famous and lerned Cities of the Greekes in tyme paste , did bring vp and educate their children , firste in Poetes , affirming Poetes only to be wyse , sage and seuere . In Poets , children are taught Vertue , as Horace sayth in his Epistles most truly . Horatius .

Secondly , the worthy Historiographers which declare vnto vs the famous gestes , ciuill maners , and happy fortunes of noble and worthy men , by whose laudable lyfe we may se the way of well lyuing , and by whose temeritie or vnlucky destinie , we maye foresee to lyue more circumspectly , which is a goodlye thing , to vse others rashnesse to our temperance , as Diodorus sayth : Diodorus It is a faire thing by other mens faults to amende our owne maculous lyfe , and by the example of others to knowe what is to be desired , and what is to be eschewed . An Historie , sayth Beroaldus , doth greatly profyte , Beroaldus after that that is honest , detesting and adnihilating the vicious , extolling the sincere and godly , suppressing the peruers and wretched . Thirdely , the bookes of the milde Philosophers , which declare and enforme vs of the documentes and precepts of Vertue , as the ten bookes of Aristotle intituled his Ethicke , Ciceros thrée bookes of Offices , Lactantius works de deuina institut . Erasmus of the institution of a Christian Prince , & manie mo , which haue liuely , vertuously & frendly depainted and sette forth the trade of an honest lyfe . Fourthly and last of all , the bookes of holy scripture , which declare and teach , howe we shoulde knowe God , whom to know a creator of all thinges , and he to be but one onely , is the dere , true and perfecte wisdome of man , Lactantius lib. 2. as Lactantius wryteth in his seconde booke .

IN case aduenture some would say , there be many vnlerned men which neuer at any tyme adhibited their mindes to study , and yet are reputed and estemed men of an honest lyfe and conuersation . It is to be aunswered : euen as some ascend vnto Vertue by their singuler wit without learning , Cicero de oration . as Cicero in his booke of Orations testifieth , saying : I haue knowen many notable wittie men , vertuous , without learning , who haue bene by nature modest and graue . And this also doe I often ascribe vnto Vertue : nature to be of muche more excellencye without learning , than learning without nature . And againe , euen the same I contend , when as , eloquence & the ground of learning is ioyned with an excellent and noble nature , then do I not know what shall continue egregious & notorious . This spake Cicero verye prudently .

WHo so desireth the fruit and commodity of true Vertue and sincere honestie , out of those .iiij. bokes , that is to say , of Poetrie , Historiographie , Philosophie , and holy Scripture , it is necessarie he learne the accustomed maner of Bees in the collection of their honie . The Bees are accustomed when as they gather hony , to flie about diuers floures , to tast many floures , and of the iuyce thereof to excerpe & sucke somewhat , and then to carye some of the moysture thereof in to their Hyues , which they lay downe and fardel vp together , to compound hony therof : thus frequenting and doyng this often , they conserue and conglomerate muche hony on heapes in length of tyme , which is a sweete fruite of their labours : euen so muste the desirous to be vertuous , which also wissheth to come to the state of a man , vse a quadruple exercise .

The first exercise is , that he excerpate & annote in a voide booke , as the keper of memory , whatsoeuer he shal reade or be taught , which mai be a furtherance to eloquence and Vertue . For an egregious man must haue the vse of them both as Cicero testifieth in his fyrste booke of his olde Rhetoricke , affirming that wisdome without eloquence helpeth little to the gouernment of Cities , and eloquence withoute wisdome doth hinder more than profite . Let euery Student therefore , make him two voyde bookes , in which he shall wryte both what he hath heard , and also what he hath read : in the one to annote fine sugred sentences , in other vertuous precepts , like a couetous man , who heapeth vp treasures , for which he hath dyuers chestes , specially where he putteth his siluer , & where he putteth his golde , alone . This exercise did Plinie the compositor of the naturall History , vse and imitate , of whom Plinie his seconde vncle wryteth , that he neuer read any thing worthy to be noted , but he comitted it to writing . The second exercise is , to conceale such annotations in the retentiue memorie , and that he thinke to vse them often as Macrobius wryteth in his sixte booke , saying : Macrobius lib. 6. the best & moste profitable way of reading and hearing , is to immitate those which seeme moste probable , & to conuert the sayings of other to some vse of thine , whiche thou thinkest most graue , and most to be admyred , which accustomed maner the pleasant Latines as also the noble Gretians were wont to vse , which is not onely to heare any Authour , to learne his wordes , or to vnderstande his oration or phrase of speaking , but of his learning and doctrine , to collect the mellifluous eloquence and right way of liuing , euen as meate receiued onely in the mouth nothing nourisheth the body except it discende into the stomacke , and there concoqued and sodden , in the ende conuerte to fleshe and bloude , so neyther the lesson that is hearde or read , profiteth any whit the student , vnlesse it be conferred to some vse of talking and more wisdome . The third exercise is this , to drawe euery day a lyne by example of the Painter Appelles , who would dayly , were he neuer so sore occupyed about other affayres , depaynt or drawe one lyne at the least . And so doth the couetous man put dayly one piece of siluer into his treasury , for many littles make a great , as Hesiodus the Poet sayth : Hesiodus . Paruula si tentas super adiecisse pusillis , idque frequenter peragas , magnus cumulatur aceruus . Which is : If thou adde or put little to little , & vse it eftsones , therof riseth a great heape . And in this exercise it is not to be laboured howe much we learne dayly , but how wel . Therfore Appelles answered an vnskilful Painter who gloried that he had drawen an Image sodenly : I doe not maruell at this , sayth he , for thou mayest drawe many moe such foolishe pictures quickly . Wherfore we ought to follow that witty sentence of Cato , Sat cito si stat bene . Cato : Inoughe well done is done quickely inough . Wherevpon Augustus Caesar vsed this adage , Augustus Caesar . Matura lente . Haste not to much in thy worke , but do it wiselye without muche temerity or rashnesse . For the soft circumspect space profiteth more , than the swifte hedlong course without all wit and reason . The fourth and laste exercise , is to reporte and reuolue at night whatsoeuer was learned the day before , whiche vse Cato vsed as Philel . wryteth in his booke de educa . puero . And Apuleius writeth of a certaine people in India , which are called Gymnosophistae , which knowe neither to inhabit their lande , nor the vse of tillage , neither to bridle horses neither to tame bulles , neither to shere sheepe , yet they adored wisdome greatly . Both auncient maysters , as also yong ryping scholers , haue nothing in more contempt than the sluggish slouthfulnesse of the minde . For when as their table was spred redy for dinner , and before meate was set thereon , all the yong men from diuers places and offices came to Dine . Then woulde the mayster inquire of eche of them what good he had done that day from the rysing of the sunne . Then one would remember howe he had set two at vnitie and concord . An other woulde say he had obeyed his parents commaundementes : another would say he had founde something by practise : and an other woulde say he had learned somewhat . And he which coulde shew nothing , was thrust dinnerlesse out of the dores to worke . And so ought euery student at night to practise with him selfe the propertie of sheepe , whose nature is , that when towardes night they be driuen from out the medowes vnto the fieldes , they do eate and chaw againe their meate that they haue gathered of al the day before , and therefore they surrender milke into their pastors . In likewise ought the enamored with vertue to repeate at nighte both what he hath read , & also what he hath hearde , both which be grounded on eloquence , and also which be godly and vertuous in doctrines . And secondly , that he turne into milk , that is that he vse to seeme profitable and honest of liuing , that others may se wherin he hath profited , euen as the sheepe shewe their pasture by their milke , to haue eaten grasse , & not to haue spent the day idlelie . And also it shall be verie profitable to examine with another , whether he hath profited more in eloquence or in vertue . For wheras he conferreth with others eyther of them proueth what he knoweth , & what he doth not know . Whervpon Sueto in his boke of the institutions of Grammarians , sayth : Sueto . that in the olde time in scholes of learning , it was the accustomed maner , that the scholers shoulde in the fore noone contend the one with the other in disputations , and in the after noone recite those disputations and arguments by roote .